The civil rights activist, continuing his push for diversity in the tech industry, is planning to attend Amazon’s shareholders meeting in Seattle on Wednesday morning, according to his representatives. He came to Seattle in early December and met with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, but struggled to get a meeting with top Amazon executives at the time.
Following the launch of Jackson’s tech diversity campaign, several large tech companies that have established funds and initiatives to increase diversity in their workforce. Jackson attended the Twitter annual meeting last week, and is scheduled to attend the Facebook annual meeting on Thursday.
Amazon said in a statement, “We look forward to welcoming Reverend Jackson at our annual meeting and we agree that these are important issues.” The company’s diversity initiatives are outlined here.
Jackson is also speaking later on Wednesday as the guest at a private event hosted by the Washington Technology Industry Association in Seattle. The organization says Jackson was the inspiration behind the Northwest Technology Equity Initiative and the WTIA’s Diversity Action Committee.
Follow GeekWire for full coverage of Amazon’s annual meeting on Wednesday morning.Updated at 4:22 p.m. with Amazon comment.

Sep 3, 2014 - Jesse Jackson is calling on Amazon.com to release its work force diversity numbers. The Seattle technology giant is one of the lone holdouts among major ... of diversity and the issue of inclusion in the tech industry," he said.

Segway....Reading Material....socialist racist seattle city councilmember Kshama Sawant was bitching again the other day, with the rehashed falsehood/misnomer/myth that "Seattle is too White"....here's a rebuttal from the recent past and this white liberal said exactly my first thought...they're not in the city proper, too expensive, they're everywhere else outside the city limits:

"But while one can argue terms and trends, everyone agrees on one powerful fact: Most of Seattle’s diversity is actually outside of Seattle. In the past 13 years, the total population of people of color inside the city limits has increased 20 percent (the national average is more like 37 percent). By contrast the total population of people of color in the suburbs of Seattle has grown 93 percent — more than double the nationwide rate."

Patrice Thomas, left, and Maia Segura discuss community development and diversity at Kaffa Coffee & Wine Bar on Rainier Avenue South in Seattle. (Photo by Mark Harrison / The Seattle Times)I often hear Seattle described as a “white city.” It comes from a variety of sources (white people and people of color, natives to Seattle and transplants), but it always strikes me as tone-deaf and, frankly, incorrect.
Writing this column is as likely to take me to a Somali community center in the South End as it is to a Syrian Orthodox Church in North Seattle — and sometimes to both on the same day. Every time I hear “white city,” I point out that almost 20 percent of our city’s population is foreign-born, that we’re home to some of the most diverse ZIP codes in the country and that we have one of the fastest growing immigrant and refugee populations.
So when fellow Seattle Times writer, “FYI Guy” Gene Balk, reported on recent census data that suggested Seattle is “getting whiter,” I was confused and left wondering, “How can all these numbers be true at once?”
Turns out that, like many heated debates in this mercurial town (Is density good or bad? Are Seattleites friendly or standoffish? Is our Mexican food delicious or lacking?), one’s impression of diversity in Seattle often comes down to where you live.Blue and purple areas show growing minority populations in western King County since 1990. (Maps by Chandler Felt for King County)“Let me go through these three slides, with purple being the most diverse (areas),” says King County demographer Chandler Felt while laying down three maps of our region dotted with digital rainbow splotches. “Look at 1990, now 2000, now 2010,” he says as I watch the purple and blue patches (representing the most diverse areas) bloom dramatically over time.
Chandler is deeply skeptical of the recent census data, which shows an uptick of almost 2 percent in Seattle’s non-Hispanic white population (from 65.2 percent to 67 percent of the city’s overall population) over the past year. He suspects the influx of white people is an anomaly rather than a trend, but he’s also concerned that census categories don’t capture the unique international diversity of our region, pointing out that many new Middle Eastern and Eastern European arrivals to our city may be included as “white.”
“You don’t know who’s foreign-born,” says Cuc Vu, director of the recently expanded Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs in downtown Seattle. Vu shares Chandler’s concerns over the census’ “white” category and adds that the “black” category also doesn’t differentiate between native-born African Americans and our city’s growing East African community.
But while one can argue terms and trends, everyone agrees on one powerful fact: Most of Seattle’s diversity is actually outside of Seattle. In the past 13 years, the total population of people of color inside the city limits has increased 20 percent (the national average is more like 37 percent). By contrast the total population of people of color in the suburbs of Seattle has grown 93 percent — more than double the nationwide rate.
“To look only at the city, I think, is not that useful because the lines are fluid between where we work and where we live and where we play,” says Vu. “It does suggest that there are some socioeconomic trends that are driving some movement of people.”
Vu says newcomers to our region, many of them people of color, are often attracted to suburban areas where they find more affordable (and more family-friendly) housing, good schools and growing international business districts.A map shows high levels of diversity in western King County, especially outside Seattle’s city limits to the South, with a few predominantly white neighborhoods clustered around the Ship Canal and Puget Sound waterfront. (Map by City of Seattle)Inside the city limits diversity (and lack thereof) is concentrated in certain areas. To illustrate this Chandler brings my attention back to his series of maps.“This time watch right here,” he says pointing at neighborhoods between the Ship Canal and Lake City (including Greenwood, where I grew up). While the rest of the region became significantly more diverse over this period of time, these neighborhoods did not. “When Gene Balk talks about Seattle getting whiter, a lot of it is happening here.”
Alternately, Patrice Thomas of SEED, an organization devoted to supporting community development and diversity in Southeast Seattle, says her daily experience living in the 98118 ZIP code is defined by diversity.
“(I) walk out of my front door and have the option to either get Somali, Ethiopian, Italian, a burger or a fish … from Saar’s [an Asian market],” she says while sitting at Kaffa, an Ethiopian coffee shop and wine bar on Rainier Avenue South.Still think Seattle is a “white city”? It might just be the neighborhood you’re in.

Oct 27, 2014 - Earth to Seattle Times: Seattle is getting whiter because black people are ... For instance, if Seattle is so white why are the employees for King ...You've visited this page 2 times. Last visit: 6/10/15

May 12, 2014 - That's the contention of Jeff Reifman, a veteran of the Seattle-area tech ... years, I've personally found dating in Seattle has become increasingly difficult. ..... It doesn't exist if you're a particular type of introverted white person.

Apr 29, 2011 - The city core is becoming whiter, while the edges and suburbs, north and ... all minorities (the remainder, of course, is the white non-Latino population). ... Asians too experienced tremendous growth in the suburbs, especially ...

Him (usually rolling his eyes): We're better when we have people of different backgrounds bringing their points of view to the table.

Me: How so? We're a banking operation. Financial procedure doesn't change based on your skin colour or who you sleep with.

Him: Would you be happy if everyone was the same around here?

Me: If everyone around here would do their jobs correctly, rather than concentrating on irrelevant things like how many gays or Pakistanis we have, to the detriment of accuracy and competence, yes I would.

He'd usually tell me the meeting was over at that point. I had several similar discussions about it while I was there and never received an intelligent defence of this practice.
I can wholeheartedly attest that the vast majority of blacks, other minorities, and gays contributed more to error making, distracting histrionics, backstabbing, and low morale than any sort of positive contribution they could have made.

....
I can wholeheartedly attest that the vast majority of blacks, other minorities, and gays contributed more to error making, distracting histrionics, backstabbing, and low morale than any sort of positive contribution they could have made.

I get the impression that most non-Whites think the best way to advance themselves is to back-stab other people (usually Whites).